In the year 2000, the Earth spaceship “Hope One” sets off to explore strange new worlds for the purposes of colonization ... well, that's according to the 81 minute Canadian produced little pot boiler Space Probe Taurus released in 1965.

The start of the film is actually very enjoyable: it has a nice bit of what appears to be a Mercury Atlas launch, followed by star field imagery which is very 'Star Treky' (new word), and some narration that really could easily have been read by Captain Kirk.

The next part of the film sees the only survivor of Faith One requesting a “destruct” command from some very stoic U.S. military types back on Earth; and then the story moves on again with some rather nice NASA stock footage of rocket launches and orbital images.

There is a great plot setting piece from a General being interviewed by a typical 1960s television reporter, about the specifications of the next exploratory mission and its ship (Hope One) including the “artificial gravity” system (more money saved on special effects). There's a bit of friction between the commander and the only female crewmember in the four “person” crew, making it obvious from his "women don’t belong on a job like this” speech that he’s not keen on her being there.

As you may have guessed, things do not go well. Let’s face it; if they did it would be a pretty boring little movie. As it is, an alien encounter and then a swarm of meteorites propel the ship dramatically off course into a sea on an previously uncharted world where they encounter sea monsters.

I have to say the control room of the “Hope One” is very nice, with lots of dials, switches and lights that look like they would be fun to play with. The ship does have a bit of a closed-in feeling, but not in the same way as the “old” Apollo moon shots did. It did remind me of the now-defunct space shuttle interiors. It’s not a bad little film; it does have a good story line and the usual square jawed types. If you want to see it have a look on YouTube, it’s there.